Solving Problems and Synthesising Information in a Globalising World

The internet, email, and computers are rapidly changing the skills essential to succeed at school and work.  As globalisation accelerates, information is pouring in faster and faster.  Information that took months to track down a few years ago can now spin off the internet in just minutes.  With such easy access and tremendous volumes, the ability to choose effectively among a wide variety of options is ever more vital. In this world students must increasingly be able to respond quickly, flexibly and critically.  They must be able to wade through and synthesise vast amounts of information, not just memorise chunks of it. They must learn to recognize what is relevant and what is irrelevant.  They also need to acquire the skills to be able to learn new technologies quickly as well as solve a continual stream of problems with these new technologies. This is where chess as a tool to develop our children’s minds appears to be especially powerful.  By its very nature chess presents an ever-changing set of problems.  Except for the very beginning of the game — where it’s possible to memorise the strongest lines — each move creates a new position.  For each of these a player tries to find the ‘best’ move by calculating ahead, evaluating these future possibilities using a set of theoretical principles.  Importantly, more than one ‘best’ move may exist, just as in the real world more than one best option may exist.  Players must learn to decide, even when the answer is ambiguous or difficult. These thinking skills are becoming ever more valuable for primary and secondary school students constantly confronted with new everyday problems.